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Daily Archive: October 14, 2013

L-R: John Palermo; Kanye West Hollywood fixture John Palermo, business-partner to A-Lister Hugh Jackman and X-Men Origins: Wolverine producer, exposed his bigotry and xenophobia on Facebook in a series of ignorant statements: From BET:

by Alan Duke (CNN)–“MasterChef” runner-up Joshua Marks was in “the battle of his life fighting mental illness” when he killed himself Friday, his family said Sunday. His family blames the lack of mental health treatment facilities and the easy access to guns as factors in his tragic death.

This theater image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown shows Mary Bridget Davis performing in “A Night with Janis Joplin,” at the Lyceum Theatre in New York. Davies and her “A Night With Janis Joplin,” which opened Thursday, are part of a new wave of musicals featuring female singer-songwriters, a list that includes a Carole King musical making its way to Broadway. Performing with Davies is, background from left, Taprena Michelle Augustine, De’Adre Aziza, Allison Blackwell and Nikki Kimbrough. (AP Photo/Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Joan Marcus) by Jennifer FarrarAssociated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Legendary blues and soul singer Janis Joplin was an astounding force of nature onstage and off. A new concert musical on Broadway provides a rockin’ good time while imaginatively evoking her impassioned, thrilling talent. Randy Johnson wrote and directed the tribute, “A Night With Janis Joplin.” Featuring a powerful performance by Mary Bridget Davies as Joplin alongside a quartet of extremely talented singers, the loud, colorful, ’60s-saturated spectacle opened Thursday night at the Lyceum Theatre.

In this Sept. 27, 2013 photo, Dominican actresses Clara Morel, left, and Luz Bautista Matos, of the theater group “Arbol Maravilloso,” or “Wonderful Tree,” pose for a photo after their performance for school children in Moca, Dominican Republic. Their theater group has visited schools across the country to spread the word among Black children that their features and heritage should be a source of pride. (AP Photo/Manuel Diaz) by Ezequiel Abiu LopezAssociated Press Writer SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — In a school auditorium filled with laughing students, actresses Luz Bautista Matos and Clara Morel threw themselves into acting out a fairy tale complete with a princess, a hero and acts of derring-do. Morel had wrapped a white plastic sheet around her multi-colored blouse, while Bautista donned a brown paper bag over her blue tights. The two Black actresses wore their hair free and natural, decorated only with single pink flowers. “Yes, you’re a princess,” said Bautista to Morel, who fretted that she didn’t look like a traditional princess with her dark complexion and hair. Bautista then turned to a young girl sitting in the front row, who shared the same African-descended features as both actresses. “And you too,” Morel said as the child smiled back at her. The theater group Wonderful Tree has visited schools all over Santo Domingo and some in the countryside to spread the word among Black children that their features and heritage should be a source of pride. That message, though simple, has been nothing less than startling in this Caribbean country, where 80 percent of people are classified as mulattos, meaning they have mixed Black-White ancestry, but where many still consider being labeled Black an offense.

Singer Usher is on the November 2013 cover of Men’s Health magazine, giving readers a preview of his upcoming role as Sugar Ray Leonard in a new film. At 34-years old, Usher says he weighed about 180 pounds when he accepted the role, but is now “cruising” his way down to the 170’s.

Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Catherine Threat watches students as they arrive at Courtenay Elementary Language Arts Center in Chicago in this Oct. 7, 2013 file photo taken in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File) by Russ BynumAssociated Press They’re experienced research engineers and park rangers still in college, attorneys who enforce environmental regulations and former soldiers who took civilian jobs with the military after coming home from war. And all of them have one thing in common: They were sent home on unpaid furlough last week after a political standoff between the president and Congress forced a partial shutdown of the federal government. More than 800,000 federal workers were affected at first, though the Pentagon has since recalled most of its idled 350,000 employees.

14-month old Azzurra sits with a lipstick kiss on her cheek from her mother Cynthia Carpino, both of whom were caught up in the Westgate Mall attack, at their apartment in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) by Rukmini CallimachiAssociated Press Writer NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — When the shooting began at the Nairobi mall, Cynthia Carpino and her husband hid in the parking lot. But their 1-year-old daughter wouldn’t stop crying. To muffle her cries, her father placed his hand over her mouth so hard she almost suffocated. Little Azzurra fainted in his arms, and three weeks later she’s still not right.

DJ Grandmaster Flash To celebrate 50 years of unlocking the power of education for African American students, NEED is holding its 50th Anniversary Gala on Oct. 19, at The August Wilson Center. The celebration will include dinner, a late night lounge set with a musical performance by Alice Smith and a dance party with legendary DJ, Grandmaster Flash.

RICHARD CARRINGTON Three years ago after community activist Richard Carrington’s home was broken into, someone knocked on his door offering to sell him the same gun stolen from his house. The seller had no idea it was Carrington’s gun. “My shotgun came back to my front door with someone trying to sell it to me,“ Carrington said. “A lot of these guns are floating from place to place.”

GEORGE E. CURRY (NNPA)—On Sept. 16 the news was shocking: A contract employee who worked at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., later identified as Aaron Alexis, killed 12 innocent people in the facility before he was killed by police. For many African-Americans, our first thought was: “I hope it wasn’t one of us.” On Oct. 3, there was another disturbing incident in the nation’s capital: An unarmed woman with her 1-year-old child in the car, drove her vehicle into barriers outside the White House and on Capitol Hill before being shot to death by police.